


When Respect is Earned

by cdenzelj



Category: CSI: Crime Scene Investigation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-14
Updated: 2021-01-14
Packaged: 2021-03-12 02:09:34
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,569
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28752690
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cdenzelj/pseuds/cdenzelj
Summary: Nick and Ellis discuss a recent killing by the former night-shift leader, PTSD, child-molestation, and protectiveness.





	When Respect is Earned

Ellis tipped his head, sidling close to Nick, whose gaze was fixed on the crowd of shift-changing CSIs. His arms were folded stiffly over his chest, and his brow was furrowed in concentration. Curious, Ellis narrowed down his boss’ line of sight to the ex-night supervisor, Natalie.

“She do something to make you mad?” he asked, tipping his chin in her direction. Nick acknowledged his presence with a friendly shift in his posture.

“Oh no, of course not.”

”You’re glowering.”

”Am I?” Ellis nodded. “No, I’m just focused.”

”Well you picked an interesting thing to focus on,” he teased lightly. Nick bit his cheek, regarding him for a moment. He wasn’t wrong; Natalie was just as attractive as always, with her sun-lightened hair tied in a lose ponytail and her eyes fixed on some article on her phone.

“She’s really sweet, have you met her yet?”

“I have,” said Nick with a sly grin. Images of the night they shared five years earlier invaded his mind, and he hugged his thighs together, trying to fight the southward rush of blood. “And I agree. I was just watching the crowd and… I keep noticing something every day she’s here.”

“What’s that?”

“Everyone is noticeably quieter. Even though the hallway is crowded, they seem to be going out of their way to avoid touching her… bumping into her at all.” He turned toward Ellis, lowering his voice a little. “Last week, I saw two officers walk to the other side of the hall to avoid her.”

Ellis tipped his head back. “Ah, you might not’ve heard. She snapped and killed someone pretty recently. Beat the guy to death.”

Nick wheeled on him in surprise. “Really?” Noticing her proximity, Ellis tipped his head toward the break room, indicating Nick to follow. He closed the door behind them with a soft click. “She seems like the nicest woman on Earth. And she weighs like, what? Hundred twenty maybe? And you and I stand a head taller than she does.”

Ellis shrugged. “What can I say? When you’re pissed off enough, size doesn’t really matter.”

“But she’s still walking around free, so she must’ve had a reason.”

“Oh she did,” he agreed. “A good guy-friend of hers was going through a nasty custody battle over their seven-year-old little girl,” Ellis explained. “Mom is really kind of a deadbeat, but Natalie was friends with her dad and has these crazy deep-rooted protective instincts.”

“I think we all kinda do.”

“To an extent, sure, but her… She gets like… she thinks every child in a case is suddenly _hers_. She’d face an army alone to protect a kid.” Nick smiled inwardly, letting the warmth of the sensation fill his insides, like the sun shining in on his soul. _God, I love women with mothering instincts…_ ”So naturally, little girl absolutely loves her. And if you know anything about Naddie, she’s got mom energy in her heart.” Nick smiled warmly. “Well, Mom hates Natalie’s guts, but not much she can do. Mom starts dating a cop. Naddie isn’t vibing well with this new guy. Anyway, few months go by, and something came up with the dad where Naddie has to watch her for the day. Naddie’s needed here, so she brings little girl in. Naddie specializes in micro photography. Little girl thinks that’s super cool. Naddie wants to show her what cells look like, so she swabs the inside of her mouth.” Ellis swallowed hard, looking down at the floor suddenly.

Nick frowned. “What?”

“Natalie found semen in little girl’s mouth.”

Nick groaned, rubbing his hand on his face. “God, that doesn’t get easier no matter how many times you hear it. What’d she do? She snapped then?”

“No,” said Ellis, “she tried to be a good officer, she really did. It was late, so she had to wait to get ahold of child services, but while she had little girl, she ran the DNA and was able to exclude the dad, all without scaring little girl. Dad comes to get her and she tells him what’s going on, investigation gets started,” he continued, gesturing in a circle with his hand. “Ultimately, DNA evidence gets scrapped because she didn’t have a warrant or permission from the parents to test it.”

“That’s bullshit,” Nick grumbled. _Fucking red tape…_

“It gets worse. The DA opens a fresh investigation, orders the guy to stay away from little girl, but lets him go. Natalie was absolutely _furious_ , you should’ve seen it, environmental services thought there was a mountain lion somewhere in here.

Anyway, Mom’s too proud to admit she took in the wrong guy, puts up a fight with Dad over how to protect his daughter. Girl goes back with Mom, bad guy ordered to sty away. Natalie doesn’t believe it for a second. Couple weeks go by and no one really hears anything. She wasn’t told anything by child services, just to butt out. One day, she’s in town buying grain for her horses or whatever and sees this guy leave the local bar. She knows he lives in the city, so there’s no reason for him to be out that way. So she follows him and sure enough, he goes right to little girl’s house.”

Nick sighed heavily. “Oh God.”

Ellis nodded bitterly. “Yuuup, turns out he had been molesting her for a long time, paying the mom to look the other way. Mom just wants to get hers, so she lets him.”

Nick’s blood boiled under the surface. “You’re fucking kidding me!” he barked. Elis visibly flinched. “What kind of mother serves up her daughter like a _fucking_ sandwich?!”

Ellis lowered his hands, spreading his fingers. “Shh, don’t get too worked up.” Nick forced his tongue between his teeth. “Once he realizes we’re on to him, he doesn’t want to be a child-molesting cop in prison, right? So guy tried to kill Mom and little girl, but Natalie stormed up in there and beat his ass into the ground. The Mom called the cops. Naddie was a crazy mess when we got there.”

“How did she not get arrested too?”

“Since she didn’t go in with a weapon, they figured she wasn’t there to kill him and her original intent was to just confront him. But the forensic psychologist said she had a severe episode of PTSD. Something about the whole situation triggered her and set her off, and she wasn’t really in control. The court charged her with misdemeanor manslaughter and gave her community service. That’s why she keeps coming in, helping us with documents and microscopy when we need it.”

“That’s why she’s not on my payroll,” Nick realized.

“That would be why. She’s not technically your employee, she’s a public servant at the moment.”

“What happened to the girl?”

“Oh, she’s fine. Well… as fine as you _can_ be,” Ellis assured him. “Her Mom went to jail for willful neglect, and her Dad was awarded full custody of her, and she’s in therapy and is doing better from what I hear from Natalie.”

“Where does her PTSD come from, do you know?”

Ellis splayed his hands. “That’s all I can tell you, I have no idea why she’s like that. She’s never told anyone, and no one had any reason to suspect she had any demons before a month ago.”

“And now they’re all avoiding her like the plague,” Nick said bitterly, looking wistfully out the window.

“Well, when the sweetest girl at work that you’ve known for fifteen years snaps and kicks a guy’s teeth down his throat, it tends to shock people.” Nick’s mouth twitched in a half-hearted smile.

“I gotta respect her for that, though. She did what we all want to do to child molesters.”

“She did,” Ellis agreed. “And people aren’t so much afraid of her as… respect isn’t quite the word… Awe? I guess? Like the angel of justice itself appeared out of nowhere to save two people. Wouldn’t be anything other than a normal day if she hadn’t’ve just… gave herself up to the cops.”

“What d’ya mean?”

“Well, Natalie’s one of the dozen or so people in the country that can make someone _completely_ disappear if she wanted to. But that she killed him, then was on her knees with her hands up by the time the cops rolled up. Takes ‘nads. She said she didn’t want to make our job too difficult,” he said through a chuckle. Nick hummed low in his throat. “But her crew, her friends… they’ll never see her the same way, and I think it kind of hurts her. She’s not as chatty, she keeps her eyes glued to her phone… It kind of bums me out.”

“I can understand that. Must be lonely,” he mumbled. Only when the words left his lips did he realize he wasn’t speaking only to himself. He straightened his back, assuming his more authoritative demeanor.

Ellis took a step closer, clearly seeing what Nick was trying to avoid. “Look, it’s none of my business, but why don’t you… you know? Catch up with her? People aren’t meant to be alone like you guys.” Nick made a sound of dissent in his throat. “C’mon, no one would care, and you two have a lot in common,” he pointed out, opening the door to the hallway.

“How’s that?”

Ellis chuckled. “We’re all scared of the both of you.”


End file.
